It’s soon time for New Year’s resolutions. What will it be this time? We have a suggestion: Learn more about responsible internet use! This is something the whole family can do together, and our blog offers lots of inspiration!

We’re back from our Christmas break in January. In the meantime, you can enjoy these amazing Christmas cards made by Momio users.

Save the Children in Sweden has made a study called “Young Voice” where they asked Swedish kids about their well-being. 25.000 kids answered and the results give valuable insights.

The report tells for example that 46% of the kids that are being bullied or harassed, feel that the reason is because of their appearance.

On Momio, it is not allowed to use the word “ugly” when you talk about another person.

We try to teach the kids that if you don’t have anything nice to say you don’t have to say anything at all, and it is not nice to call someone else ugly, fat or any other insulting word. Since we’re a social platform for 7-12 year old kids, we feel that it is our responsibility to do our best to make sure that harassment and talking down to others is not accepted on Momio.

How can we stop harassment?

Our main tool for stopping mean comments is teaching the kids how to report. When something gets reported we look into it, remove the bad comment and correct the user. Most children learn from the first warning and don’t write nasty things after that. Education is key! We also catch mean comments in our word filters. We screen Momio for bad words and look at posts containing words that hurt others – and if needed, our moderators and staff step in.

Is your kid allowed to use the word “ugly” about other people? Let’s start a discussion in the comments!

About the author:

Nathalie Seow, Momio

Nathalie Seow has experience as Swedish Community Manager, Head of Social Media and Community Supporter at Momio. Her history with us goes all the way back to May 2011. She is a social media geek that loves to explore new trends and social communities online. She has a previous career in fashion retail and visual merchandising but can’t think of a better job than working with kids online.

Ironically enough, social media for kids has often been criticized for making people asocial. It is accused of stimulating bullies to be mean and parents are afraid of exposing their children to an online world filled with haters.

At watAgame we take this topic very seriously, since we want Momio to be a fun place for kids – so creating a tolerant, friendly and understanding community is one of our top priorities. Therefore, we encourage kids to be nice to each other and educate those who are not.

Many of us, including myself, have encountered bullying in our own lives, so I started to wonder: what are the differences between school- and cyberbullying? What are the structures behind bullying and how can we help the bullied?

IS IT TRUE THAT DIGITAL BULLYING DIFFERS FROM SCHOOL BULLYING?

No, according to Save The Children project coordinator Naja Kinch Sohn, it is not. Online or offline, these are the most common reasons for bullying:

Boredom – Children who feel bored because they have nothing else to keep them occupied.

Lack of understanding – Children who do not understand that there are many different ways of looking, feeling, talking, engaging and so on. These children usually lack tolerance.

IS THERE ANOTHER PROBLEM WITH CYBERBULLYING?

It might be true, however, that online bullying feels different, if not even worse than offline bullying. But why is that?

Body language is missing – Children might perceive harsh words as even harsher online, because they can only react to what they read and this can lead to misunderstandings.

Bullying has no time limit – In other places than school, mean words stay written and bullies can say mean things around the clock. It seems harder to escape from it online.

Bullies can be anonymous – Children are in doubt about who is bullying them. They often wonder: Does this person really know me?

WHAT CAN PARENTS DO?

As a parent, it can be hard to tackle specific cyberbullying aspects, as you do not really know who to confront. However, you can help prevent bullying by:

Involve yourself and take responsibility for what happens online. Take your child’s feelings seriously, even if it is not easy to understand what they are going through. Try to take part in solving the conflict – for example on Momio you can write to our support, so we can help you find out what really happened.

Talk to your child about conflict solving. Explain that the person online might not necessarily know your child and that being bullied is definitely not your child’s fault.

IT’S NEVER OK

Social media hasn’t caused more bullying – but it has given it a new arena. No matter where it happens, the structures behind bullying are the same: it is the same group of people with the same reasons.

It is important that your child understands that it is never their fault that they are being bullied or excluded. Some people use lame excuses for bullying others, but there is absolutely nothing that justifies that.

About the author:

Lill Hennschen, Momio

Lill has been employed as a German Community Manager since May 2013 and works with content creation, online safety and translation. She has a Bachelor degree in Humanities and Communication and a special interest in equality studies. Besides this, she volunteers for Red Barnet Ungdoms project MobSquad – an initiative trying to prevent bullying and segregation in primary schools.